Journey to Islam€¦ · Call to prayer or... Athaan Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Missippi Delta Levee...

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Journey to Islam East Meets West: Critical and Creative Thinking Serendipity and Persistence March, 2016 Constance M. Cook

Transcript of Journey to Islam€¦ · Call to prayer or... Athaan Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Missippi Delta Levee...

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Journey to IslamEast Meets West: Critical and Creative Thinking

Serendipity and PersistenceMarch, 2016

Constance M. Cook

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Curiosity Need to know

Suspend belief systemWhat can I learn?

Tolerating ambiguity and no quick answer…Critical and Creative Thinking…

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Where does Islam exist?Asia/Middle East: Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia,

Iran, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey

North Africa: Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia,

Sub Saharan Africa: Nigeria

Western Sahara, Somalia, Sudan,

Afghanistan, Hungary, Russia, U.S.A, .…

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Muslims comprise approximately 23.4% of the world population….

Wikipedia, “Muslim World Geography,” (June 29, 2014 map and list of countries).

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The East is in the West

What I learned…

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Call to prayer or...

Athaan Makkah,

Saudi Arabia

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Missippi Delta

Levee Camp Holler

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Unlearning common misconceptions..

Islam exists in many parts of the world…

Islamic visual art includes…

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Figural Art

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Prince Dara Shikoh Hunting Nilgae.png

Animals and People

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and even depictions of Mohammed…

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The Quran

Arts of the Book...

Calligraphy as decorative art...

Illuminating the word of God...

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Decorative ArtsInfinite and Divine…

Vegetal

Geometric

Arabesque

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Vegetal and Geometric Decoration

GeGeGDecoration

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The infinite and divineNature patterns reappear in modern Western art..

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Matisse

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In closing...This brief introduction may raise more questions than it answers

Importantly, one can see the profound influence of Islamic arts in Western arts today, especially on the American Art form…

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Jazz and Blues art forms

Matisse’s Jazz Folio

Mondrian’s Broadway Boogie-Woogie

Works of artists Romare Bardon and Jacob Lawrence

America’s Blues and Jazz

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Acknowledgements:

This presentation was inspired by and based in part on the work of Primary Source (primarysource.org), Watertown, MA, which offers a class in Islamic Arts and other classes of introduction to different cultures.

Special acknowledgement and thanks also to Dr. Mary Epstein ([email protected]), Joan Litman and Dr. Mehmet Sanlikol (sanlikol.comand dunyainc.org).This presentation was supported in part by the Norwood, Massachusetts Public Schools. Special thanks to Joe Kidd, Director, Technology Department, Norwood Public Schools. Special thanks also to Dr. Martha Hollander, Peter Baum and Jim Sedgwick for technical support.

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Special acknowledgement and thanks to

Dr. Mary Epstein , Joan Litman, Dr. Martha Hollander

Dr. Mehmet Sanlikol ,Dr. Andre de Quadros, all of whom supported and aided this quest

Peter Baum, Jim Sedgwick and Dr. Martha Hollander for technical assistance